Claude Monet (1840 – 1926)

The Church at Varengeville

Varengeville, Normandy, 1882

Oil on canvas

65 x 81.3 cm

The view is across a hidden gorge to the isolated cliff-top church at Varengeville.  Monet painted various subjects along the Normandy coast in the summer of 1882.  

His practice was to work simultaneously on up to eight canvasses, moving from one to another as the light changed.  This sunset view of Varengeville is from a series of four painted in this way.  The light from behind the church dissolves its form and catches the foliage in the foreground.  By 1882, Monet had largely abandoned the Impressionist practice of finishing a painting from nature; here the final touches were added in his studio.

Purchased 1938 (No.38.7)

LOAN INFORMATION

This painting appeared in the National Gallery’s exhibition, ‘Monet and Architecture’.

9 April – 29 July 2018

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